Recognizing and changing it isn't easy for anybody
by Attica Scott
"Our truncated public discussions of race suppress the best of who and what we are as a people because they fail to confront the complexity of the issue in a candid and critical manner."
—Cornel West
I remember standing in line at my high school water fountain when the white girl in front of me turned and spit in my face.
I remember the tears in my mother's eyes when I would come home from elementary school with a bag full of hand-me-downs from my white classmates' well-meaning mothers.
I remember one Halloween when two white students came to school dressed in blackface with huge white lips and I and a friend approached them about this; of course, they just stared at us blankly and said they didn't see the problem (we then reported them to the principal who told us that we were overreacting).
I remember a white co-worker coming up to me after she had returned from a trip to the beach, placing her arm next to mine and saying, "I'm almost as dark as you!"
"I Remember" is an exercise where people of color recollect memories of racist experiences throughout their lives and white people recall experiences where they have been racist. What I have mentioned here are only some of the racist experiences that I have had during my lifetime.
This exercise was part of a three-day workshop at the Highlander Center conducted by the Peace Development Fund to help people begin to better understand racism. I attended this workshop as a member of Solutions to Issues of Concern to Knoxvillians, a local grassroots organization working to promote social change and justice.
One of the most important learning experiences for me from this workshop was the understanding that racism is complex and "involves one group having the power to carry out systematic discrimination through the major institutions of society" (Peace Development Fund). Because only white people as a group have that power in the United States, only white people can be racist in our society.
Yes, people of all ethnicities can be distrustful of those who do not share their cultural heritage, but what I am writing about is racism: social and institutional power plus race prejudice (prejudgment), a system of advantage based on race, a system of oppression (power plus prejudice) based on race, and a white supremacy system.
Most white people will say that they are good people and could never be racist. These are the passive racists who will stand idly and silently by and watch a person of color being discriminated against or, say, a group of African Americans being left out of an opportunity and simply shake their heads in dismay, if they even take the time to notice. Some people will even question the person or group being oppressed and never say a word to the oppressor.
What our society needs are more of the active anti-racists like the members of Solutions who are aligning themselves with people of color to make Knoxville a better place to live for all of us. At Solutions we have developed a Change Team of staff, board and other members and volunteers that gathered together at the beginning and end of July and have already set the August gathering to begin the process of actively listening to one another and critically analyzing Solutions to determine its current stage of anti-racist organizational development (whether it's an all-white club, affirmative action/ "token," multicultural, or anti-racist organization). I think that Solutions is multicultural, but the Change Team works toward making Solutions anti-racist.
So far, I am pleased with our efforts to make sure that the white people are not the only ones facilitating the monthly Change Team gatherings, giving feedback when we find someone being racist (which is difficult to do, to accept, and to change), and Solutions continues to send its members to anti-racism training. We have also found ways of working toward making other institutions with which we are all associated more anti-racist because we realize that racism is reflected in every institution and organization in the U.S.
This Dismantling Racism workshop was only one of many that I and others in our community (not only at Solutions) have attended and will continue to attend in an effort to better serve our community through common understandings. I will continue to explore how we break down racism and then how we go about the work of undoing racism.
August 10, 2000 * Vol. 10, No. 32
© 2000 Metro Pulse
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